wn with Weed for its
final revision. When completed, it contained the groundwork of his
political philosophy. He would prosecute the work of the canals, he
would encourage the completion of railroads, establish a board of
internal improvement, extend charitable institutions, improve the
discipline of prisons, elevate the standard of education in schools
and colleges, establish school district libraries, provide for the
education of the coloured race, reform the practice of courts, cut off
superfluous offices, repeal the Small Bills law, authorise banking
under general laws, and apply rigorous safeguards, especially in
populous cities, for the purity of the ballot-box. In concluding, he
paid a handsome tribute to DeWitt Clinton and recommended that a
monument be erected to his memory in Albany.

None of our statesmen, with whom reform has been a characteristic
trait, was more devoted or happy. His delight, deep and unfailing,
extended to every department of the government, and the minuteness of
his knowledge betrayed the intimate acquaintance which he had gained
of the affairs of the State during his four years in the Senate. His
message caught the inspiration of this fresh and joyous maturity. It
was written, too, in the easy, graceful style, rhythmical and subdued
in expression, which afterward contributed to his extreme charm as an
orator. From the first, Seward was an ardent optimist, and this first
message is that of noble youth, delighting in the life and the
opportunities that a great office presents to one who is mindful of
its harassing duties and its relentless limitations, yet keenly
sensitive to its novelty and its infinite incitements. The Democrats,
whose hearts must have rejoiced when they heard his message, declared
it the visionary schemes of a theorising politician, the work of a
sophomore rather than a statesman; yet, within little more than a
decade, most of his suggestions found a place in the statute book.
Though the questions of that time are not the questions of our day,
and engage only the historian and his readers, these twenty printed
pages of recommendations, certain to excite debate and opposition,
must always be read with deep enjoyment.

The chief criticism of his opponents grew out of his acceptance of
Ruggles's estimate that the canals would more than reimburse the cost
of their construction and enlargement. The _Argus_ asserted that
Seward, instead of sustaining the policy of "pay as y